"The State
represents violence in a concentrated and organised form. The individual has a soul but as
the state is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned away from violence to which it
owes its very existence". --- Mahatma Gandhi

Political science has
failed as a discipline; it analyses democratic experiences but does not define democracy.
Democracy can best be defined as how the common people would like to be governed. Given
the choice, the people would first retain resources with local governments for handling
all local matters including justice, police, education, healthcare, water systems and
forests.

To prevent abuse of
authority, they would institute their sovereign rights to information, consultation,
participation and referendum.

They would devolve the
remaining resources to the state and national governments for providing higher level
infrastructure, support to regions with inadequate resources, and to coordinate, but not
interfere in local decision-making.

The people would make the
elected executives at all levels directly accountable to them, and not via the elected
body, with the right to recall those elected. Legislators would perform watchdog
functions, not assume executive authority.

The people would also
institute effective mechanisms, such as departmental heads appointed on contract with the
approval of the elected body, to make the bureaucracy directly accountable to them.

Along with certain rights
regarded as fundamental to democracy, this can be said to be the basic structure of
universal democracy.

Gandhi advocated such a
democracy. He added some powerful features for containing consumption and promoting social justice and equity. These have today become highly relevant for global sustainability.